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Today, an increasing number of medical practitioners are recognizing the importance of providing appropriate, non-discriminatory, and patient-centered health care to people born with intersex traits.  “Intersex” is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of inborn variations in sex characteristics that do not seem to fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Considered a sex and gender minority by the National Institutes of Health, between 0.05 percent and 1.7 percent of the population is born with intersex traits.

Care of intersex individuals, particularly children, demands special attention to avoid biases based on outdated understandings of sex and gender. To assist hospitals in offering intersex-affirming health care, pro bono attorneys at Proskauer teamed up with nonprofit legal organizations interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth and Lambda Legal to create an educational policy guide designed to better educate hospitals about the unique needs of intersex patients and address the bias and insensitivity intersex patients and their families all too often face in a health care setting.

For the fourth year in a row our London office took part in Tour de Law, a charity event run by Breast Cancer Care. Tour de Law is the largest legal race in the UK and brings together top law firms to race against each other over 1000km, the distance from London to Paris and back again.

Sadly, breast cancer is a disease that affects many of us at some point in our lives, whether personally or through family and friends, and with many of us reflecting on personal experiences, the event felt very close to our hearts. Therefore it was a real team effort – our New York office got involved too, raising money through a ‘Casual for a Cause’ day for Breast Cancer Care.  Tour de Law raised over £60,000 for the charity – an amazing achievement, and I feel proud to be part of the Proskauer team supporting the cause.